Prosecutors: Drug deal gone bad, revenge led to Sterling fire that killed 3

MORRISON — As the family members of three killed in a Sterling apartment building fire four years ago wept nearby, a Whiteside County jury on Tuesday watched body camera video showing firefighters and police officers kicking out windows and yelling as they desperately tried to save those trapped.

The footage was shown alongside the first testimony given in the first-degree murder trial of a Rock Falls man accused of setting an apartment building on fire, killing a Sterling woman and two children in 2020.

In his opening arguments Tuesday morning, Whiteside County State’s Attorney Terry Costello said Steven W. Coleman, 44, set fire to the Western Apartments at 908 W. Third St. on June 1, 2020, to get revenge after buying cocaine that turned out to be fake. Coleman is charged with six counts of first-degree murder and four arson-related charges in connection with the blaze, which killed Celina Serrano, 13; her cousin, Shyla Walker, 8, of Davenport; and neighbor Carrie A. (Hall) Hose, 49. All three died at the scene.

Celina’s mother, Alma Walker, who sustained severe burns, and Celina’s sister, Teleah Serrano, were injured but survived the fire. Nine other occupants escaped. Dixon City firefighter George Markel also was injured, sustaining ankle and knee injuries when he fell through a hole while searching the inside of the building.

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Body cam footage from Rock Falls police officer Ryan McKanna is shown in court Tuesday, July 16, 2024. The footage showed the fatal fire that took place in the early hours of June 1, 2020. (Alex Paschal)

Costello in his opening arguments said Coleman and his girlfriend had gone out to buy cocaine on May 31, 2020. When they later found out it was fake, Coleman had his brother drive over to his home to pick him up and then take him to the Western Apartments. Coleman had taken a gas can with him and at one point threatened to “light up the Western,” Costello said.

Costello said Coleman’s brother dropped him off near the Western then drove home, not knowing what his brother was going to do. Fire then broke out at the apartment building shortly after midnight.

“He was very angry that someone would take their money and give them fake cocaine,” Costello said of Coleman.

Costello said the state also will prove that Coleman’s actions and words in the days after the fire, and the discovery of Coleman’s cell phone near the burning building just hours after the fire started, would show he was the person who started the fire.

Costello also said Coleman later on June 1, 2020, told his girlfriend to tell people that they were together at the time of the fire and Coleman’s brother said he told him in the days after the fire, “I’m smoked, bro.”

But attorney Dana McCormick, the public defender representing Coleman, on Tuesday said the evidence doesn’t show Coleman committed the crime.

“There is no dispute there was a fire,” she said. “The evidence will show that there is no dispute that the three people that lost their lives died as a result of the fire and its effects.”

To prove the prosecution’s case, Costello and his team – consisting of assistant state’s attorneys Ryan Simon and Colleen Buckwalter – questioned several law-enforcement officers who testified about what they saw at the scene and the investigation that led to Coleman’s arrest.

Rock Falls police officer Ryan McKanna’s body camera footage was shown to the jury, who watched several minutes of video that showed rescue personnel’s desperate efforts to get people out of the apartment and one being carried from the burning two-level structure. McKanna was among the first police and fire units to arrive at the scene.

Former Sterling Fire Chief Michael Dettman also was called to the stand. Dettman at the time was the department’s deputy chief and was the incident commander on scene throughout the fire. He was in charge of all firefighters at the scene. Dettman described in detail how he had found a cell phone in the apartment building’s yard in the hours after the early morning blaze.

Sterling Deputy Police Chief Pat Bartel later in the day testified that the phone was traced to Coleman. Officers were able to link the phone to him after they used it to dial 911 – which the phone could do even though it was password protected – and were able to learn that the telephone number pulled up by dispatchers showed the phone was Coleman’s.

But, McCormick said in her opening statements, no eyewitnesses saw who started the fire and noted that the state’s fire investigator collected only four samples of fire debris, three of which tested negative for any combustible or accelerant liquid. One tested positive for terpene, a substance that is a naturally occurring oil found in wood.

She argued that the investigation was carried out too quickly to conclude that Coleman set the blaze.

She said evidence will show the state’s investigation was not complete or thorough, according to the defense’s investigator, and the state was biased and used information from his girlfriend and brother to point the finger at Coleman.

McCormick said state fire investigator Michael Poel of the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office arrived at the scene and told an officer, while the fire was still burning, that based on his training and experience that the fire was probably started with an accelerant. She stressed to the jury that the statement was made before the fire had been extinguished and before police were able to get into the building to investigate.

“Three people died and within 20 minutes of the state’s fire investigator being at the scene of this fire, he said, ‘Ah, it’s most likely arson.’ That’s what the evidence is going to show,” McCormick said. “And it only took him 20 minutes to get there, look through and say it’s most likely arson, but I’ve got to investigate it.”

McCormick also questioned Dettman about training he received to become a fire investigator. Dettman was the first to start investigating the fire, but stopped and decided to call the state fire marshal’s office because of the size of the fire and the deaths, he said. He secured the scene and waited for that office’s representative to arrive. McCormick grilled Dettman about the qualifications that are necessary to become a fire investigator; Dettman said he did not know but said he has been one for several years and is a fire investigator in his newest job, which he took in April after leaving Sterling Fire Department.

She also asked Dettman if he had written up a report about the fire, to which Dettman replied no.

“So three people died and you didn’t write a report?” she said.

Other testimony on Tuesday included an explanation of the layout of the apartment building where the three victims’ bodies were discovered – all were on the upper floor of the apartment building. The building had four apartments on the upper level and four on the lower level with a shared entryway on the building’s western side.

Hose was found in the bathtub in her apartment, Apt. 1, in the northwest corner of the building. The two girls were found across the hall in Apt. 4, Walker’s apartment, in the southwest corner of the building. Their bodies were found in the living room.

Of the six first-degree murder counts, three state that Coleman is charged with murder while committing a “forcible felony,” which in this case would be aggravated arson. The other three counts of murder accuse him of committing actions he knew had “strong probability” of causing death or great bodily harm to another.

Each of the first-degree murder charges is punishable by 20 to 60 years, or up to life in prison, if he is convicted. Of the four arson-related charges, three carry six to 30 years in prison and one carries four to 15 years. Coleman has been in the Whiteside County jail on $1 million bond since his arrest on June 5, 2020.

The trial is expected to last through Friday, Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge Trish Senneff said.